The present invention relates to a method for producing a smooth coherent film of a metal chalconide.
Metal chalconide films display a wide variety of properties that are useful in the electrical and chemical fields. Thus, for example, cadmium sulfide, mercury sulfide, bismuth sulfide and lead sulfide are n-type semiconductors of which thin films have application in solar energy collection devices; thallium sulfide and cuprous sulfide are p-type semiconductors of which thin films have similar uses. Nickel sulfide and cobalt sulfide are metallic conductors, and thin films of these materials have application as catalysts for redox processes involving sulfur compounds. Moreover, these compounds have application in the electronics industry and in the development of ion-selective electrodes for chemical analysis.
Up to the present time, thin films of these sulfide materials have been depositable by vapor deposition methods, but these methods are disadvantageous as they require the utilization of complex and expensive apparatus, or costly reagents may be required, and the energy costs of maintaining the necessary reduced-pressure environments and of converting these reagents from the solid to the vapor phase are relatively high.